Regenerative medicine research and regulation ‘need attention’

Learned academies ‘alarmed’ over developments in field

Regenerative medicine, the rapidly growing practice of using innovative cellular or genetic therapies to treat disease, needs policymakers and regulators to take more action around research and regulation to protect patients, two bodies representing scientific academies have warned.

“Stem cell and gene-based therapies hold great medical promises. But we are alarmed over a trend to lower requirements of evidence. Also, we see an increasing problem of commercial clinics offering unregulated products and services,” said Volker ter Meulen, co-chair of the European Academies of Science (Easac) and Medicine (Feam) group that set out the warning in a report published on 2 June.